The present disclosure relates generally to semiconductor fabrication, and more particularly to a photomask.
As semiconductor devices increase in complexity, the mask sets required to fabricate devices increase in complexity, number, and cost. As such, fabrication of masks for development, test, or even small volume production becomes prohibitively high. One solution to easing these costs offered by semiconductor foundry suppliers is to provide a mask “shuttle.” Using a mask shuttle, it is possible for the foundry to share over multiple customers and/or products the costs of one mask set—the shuttle mask. The shuttle mask is used to produce devices for each of the multiple customers and/or products. However, the costs of a mask shuttle itself is sufficiently high such that a shuttle often can not be run very frequently, in particular, as frequently as may be desired by a customer. A shuttle for a sub-node (e.g., a node distinct from a main technology node) may have an even lower frequency.